Sunday, July 18, 2010

Simple Summer Dinner

Another fridge cleaning turned up some great morsels for dinner. We had been to Trader Joe's and bought boneless skinless chicken breasts and corn on the cob.  The first planned part of the meal was the grilled chicken breasts with roasted pepper coulis.  This came to me while standing in front of the jarred roasted peppers in Trader Joe's trying to remember if I had any at home!  So I bought a jar just in case and sure enough it was a good thing I did. 

I used two whole peppers from the jar, two cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon chopped basil.  Pureed it all in the blender.  Simple right? And yet so tasty! 

Used Penzey's Galena Street Rub on the chicken breasts, marked them in my enameled grill pan and finished them in a hot oven. Napped the finished chicken with sauce when plated.  I grilled 5 chicken breast halves and saved 3 for future salads, easier than heating up the kitchen every night!

Next I stumbled upon a nice bunch of late asparagus I had bought with the intention of making an asparagus salad, but forgot!  So I was lucky enough to catch them in time before they went south!
Spread them on a sheet pan tossed with kosher salt and pepper and olive oil and roasted for 10 minutes next to the finishing chicken breasts!

For the third dish I had the 3 ears of corn we purchased, so I cut the kernels off the cobs. Then sauteed red onion, red and green bell pepper, and corn seasoned with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper for 5 minutes. I steamed a few broccoli florets in damp paper towel in the microwave for 1 minute. Tossed the broccoli in the saute for 2 minutes then added quartered Campari tomatoes, 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 6 leaves of basil chiffonade.  Sauteed for another minute or two and served immediately.  All the ingredients other than the corn were leftover scraps from other recipes throughout the week. We're really getting better at using up the odds and ends, finding them before they become refrigerator science projects!

Doesn't it look fresh and inviting?  Simple yet so delish!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Loud and clear, we like this one. I'm going to try it this weekend.

Chef Jim said...

Great, the sauce is so easy, no cooking involved, unless of course you want to use fresh roasted peppers! Also good with yellow peppers! Enjoy!